Posted on 12/22/2012 9:08:39 AM PST by Publius
Thanks for providing the REST of the story!
There is nothing new under the sun. Whatever media you cite, it is always biased for someone or something.
Thanks for the ping. Now I’ll read your story.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thanks for the ping and Happy Anniversary. Oct. 2000 for me. I would not have made it through the Clinton Presidency without FR.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, GOD BLESS YOU ALL, AND GOD BLESS THE USA!
Damn. RIP. I didn’t want to ask about the likelihood of you being on that train yourself. Terrible, strange thing.
Well, I’m in Arizona now. I don’t like thinking about the possibility that I might have liked to ride that first train were I still in Washington.
Gaaahhhhhhhh! Well good luck...be sure to ping us with any success, because I will most certainly purchase a copy!
Anniversary, education, history, U.S.A., Christmas BUMP! WOOHOO Publius!
live - free - republic
In retrospect, federalism and anti-federalism are a debate that never truly ended and still rage today. I even noted that when the US was trying to establish Iraq as a republic (for better or worse), they too had an unresolved federalism and anti-federalism debate.
Again, in retrospect, we can look back at what worked for our nation. But we should also imagine of what the historical retrospect for those men were. While they could hope that our national future was bright, they could also fear that our nation could horribly decay and plunge into chaos. The past is known, the future unknown.
And what happened shortly thereafter in the French revolution (1789-1799). Ten years of violent, anguished suffering, chaos and murder. In the mind of Hamilton, the *prospect* of this is what he feared. Maybe even today, what could be called the “Balkanization” of America.
Not a federal republic of cooperative states led by a small central government; but a bellicose group of small nations at each others’ throats, forming and dissolving blocs to militantly attack and defend each against the others.
Washington feared political parties with cause, for history is filled with terrible and destructive examples of factionalism.
For a central government to be worth anything, it must have some involuntary means of being funded, other than direct taxation of the individual states, which was forbidden in the constitution. This nightmarish problem caused us any number of problems.
Tariffs could be broken with smuggling, something even colonial Americans demonstrated masterfully against the strict British regime; taxes were difficult at best, Hamilton goading Washington into the Whiskey tax, close to unenforceable, with a hidden goal of establishing national control in the agrarian wilderness.
Also remember that the French and Indian War, followed shortly after by Pontiac’s rebellion (1754–1764), were vicious, no quarter bloodbaths, in which the colonial Americans had fought side by side with the British against the omnipresent threat of the Indians, which still remained after the revolution. And though it broke the northern tribes, the southern tribes remained unresolved as a threat until the time of Andrew Jackson.
In any event, do not be hasty in taking one side of the debate over the other. While today, and for the last century, the anti-federalism side has dominated the scene, this does not mean that the federalism side is the end all be all; just that it is needed to emerge to bring balance to the unresolved argument.
An unresolved argument works for me. A never ending intellectual rhubarb to keep all sides honest, to look for the best solutions at that time.
Thank you, Publius. And a very Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well!
I was still a relative newbie. Signed up in February of 2000, but lurked for two years before taking the plunge. My hair was even still red. Now it isn’t even my own...:o(
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas my friend.It is good to feel free to say such again-always was free to do so just was a might uncomfortable a spell. I like Madison a lot more since reading On Property. Seems all of America would be better off if we remembered whence we come from.May God richly bless you and yours this coming year.
Ping.
For my 24th anniversary at Free Republic, I’d like to post my annual holiday essay written in 2012. Merry Christmas to all!
Bttt.
5.56mm
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Happy FRversary!! 24 years is a long time! So much has happened.
However, your admission to remaining a Freeper virgin until 15-years ago today means that, henceforth, I will consider you to be a noobie... 😏
Congratulations on 15-years of activity, Noobie...
Although i could swear you were an active participant in those glorious 1998-2000 flame wars between Conservatives & Libertarians... Guess it's the 88-year old brain playing tricks again...
Have the duels be Pay-For-View and we could cut the national debt substantially.
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